Impedance compensator



Aug. 10, 1954 R. B. SQUIRES IMPEDANCE COMPENSATOR Filed April 8. 1948 PRIOR QRT FTgJT RMW 00 M0. E5 .Mzfl C4 w m e a s B. m W

ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 10, 1954 IMPEDANCE COMPENSATOR Rathbun B. Squires, Pittsburgh, Pa, assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa.,

a corporation of Pennsylvania Application April 8, 1948, Serial No. 19,809

1 4 Claims.

This invention relates to negative impedances and to impedance devices, and relates particularly to impedance circuits adapted for use in alternating-current network analyzer or calculator circuits.

Network analyzers and calculators comprise a power source and various electrical iznpedances which are connected to form a miniature network similar to, and having electrical charact istics of, an actual or proposed full-size electrical distribution system. In the miniature networn, inipedances are electrically connected with the various units thereof having electrical character-- istics proportional to those of the generating equipment, lines, transformers and various loads in the system being represented.

In the measuring circuits of such analyzers and calculators, it is very important to have correct impede-noes. Inductive impedances eniployed in miniature networks frequently are not representative of the desired inductive impedanoe because of an excessive or undesirable resistance component present in the inductive irnpedance.

The actual impedance to be represented may have a high inductance component and a low resistance component. A miniature impedance to rerescnt an actual impedance would have the same ratio of inductive and resistance components bill, the components would be of smaller magnitude. If the impedance is substantially pure inductance and the miniature impedance a resistance component of a magnitude which out of proportion to the magnitude of the inductive component, the magnitude of the resistance component over and above that necerintain the proper ratio or proportion, requently referred to as excessive e component. If a pure inductive inipedsnce desired, any resistance component present therein, would be undesirable and therefore S, inductive impedances are obtainable which do not have a proportionally high resist e iponent, but such inductive impedances conparatively expensive because a special magnetic core is employed, or because a larger reactor is employed than would be normally required. Even a special inductance of a size used in miniature replica networks cannot be 0btained which will have a low loss or low resi tance component to accurately represent, in all cases, the respective impedances of power trans-- formers, line reactances and other loads.

For example, it is very difficult, if not impos sible, to design a miniature inductance to represent the internal impedance of a generator cecause the required ratio of the inductive cor:- ponent to the resistance component is very high. In addition, the ratio must be high for small values of inductance. The lead resistan es and contact resistances in the circuits in this case become appreciable in comparison to the reactor impedance. If the lead and contact resistances are appreciable in comparison to the inductive component, there will be excessive resistance the circuit as a whole, even if the miniature ductance is perfect and has zero resistance. in some instances, it is necessary to have the current lag the voltage by substantially 90 in an impedance circuit to properly represent the desired impedance.

One method of simulating an impe an e is to employ a negative impedance along Wito an inductance of the commercial type having both a desired inductive component and, in addition, an excessive resistance component.

A negative impedance is considered th art, as the opposite of a positive impedance. example, a resistance in the circuit dissipate electrical nergy while a negative resistance supplies electrical energy to a circuit equivalent to the energy that would be dissipated positive resistance therein.

Auxiliary circuits employing vacuum or ele tronic tubes, have been employed as a negative impedance for supplyin electrical energy to impedance circuit. Such tubes, however, re auxiliary circuits and devices, and periodic 1. become defective, thereby adding to the con-- plexity and to the installation and maintenance cost of the apparatus. In addition, such tubes frequently require a separate source of electr cal energy, such as a direct-current supply, proper operation.

As one means of supplying a negative impedance between a pair of terminals having a pedance connected thereoetween, an a electronic circuit for supplying an auxiliay volt age, is connected between the terminals in shunt Since the losses supplied .ry arrangement between the ter1ninals are roportional to the square of the voltage appiie to the ter; inals, the inductance, if sectionalized or adjustable must frequently he provided with a conductor which is tapered in to give proper conductor resistance to permit adjusting the magnitude of the inductance without affecting the power factor.

In accordance with this invention, a transformer is employed to insert a negative impedance in impe -oe circuit which reflects a corresponding positive impedance in an ated circuit in series therewith. An auxiliary voltage is inserted in an impedance circuit between a pair of terminals which is proportional to the current fiowing between the terminals.

t is, accordingly, object of the present invention to produce an improved and greatly siniplified impedance circuit.

It is another object of the invention to insert a negative impedance in one portion of a se'ies circuit which is derived from a positive impedance in another portion of the circuit.

It a further object or" the invention to provide an improved aux with the i by the at 4 nary arrangement for neutralizing the efi-ect of the losses in an impedance circuit.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved variable impedance circuit adapted to counteract automatically the losses or excessive impedance component in a variable inipedance device therein, as the magnitude of the impedance in the circuit is varied.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an ll"-' OlGV8d auxiliary circuit for supplying to an impedance circuit an auxiliary voltage substantially 186 out of phase with, and proportional to, the current therethrough, to neutralize the volta e drop in the impedance circuit caused by an excessive resistance component therein.

It still a further object oi the invention to provide an improved impedance device in which one or more negative impedance components may be supplied to an impedance circuit thereof.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description, taken in conjunc'- tion with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figur l a schematic representation of an impedance circuit of the prior art;

Fig. 2 is a schematic vi w of an impedance circuit employing a novel impedance compensatcr embodying the invention; and

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of an impedance circuit having a variable impedance therein and automatic compensating means therefor.

Referring to the drawing, Figure 1 shows a circult of the prior art having an impedance circuit 5 connected between terminals a and. o, energized by an alternating-current generator or voltage supply ii. The lines Li and which ar one by the voltage supply H are con-- nectcd to a network system. An impedance in the form or" an inductance i3 is connected in the impedance circuit d between the terminals a and c. The current flowing through the inipedance circuit t and inductance i3; in, and the voltage and power supplied to the lines Li and 12, may be measured by the conventional ammeter-voltmeter-wattmeter method illustrated.

To obtain azn'meter and wattmeter readings, a knife switch 55 connected between the terminal b and the voltage supply ii, is opened to cause the current supplied to the lines LI and L2 to flow through the ammeter El and th current coils of the wattineter it. To impress l voltage upon a voltmeter it and the potential coil of the wattmeter 8, a pair of leads Ti and are provided to permit measuring potential differences between various points or terminals.

For example, if the free ends of the test leads Ti and T2 are connected to a terminal a in line L! and a terminal c in line L2, respectively, the wattmeter it when switch 55 is open will read the power output to the network system, th anuneter E? v read the current flowing thro the network system, and the voltmeter is will read the voltage between terminals a and c. The wattmeter reading may he exp mathematically as .EEac cosine 01, where I is the am meter reading Eco the voltmeter read and s1 is the phase angle between I and Eco. similarly,

when the test leads '1! and T2 are connected to a t b and terminal c, respectively, the wattineter will read the total oi the power to the network; system plus the power 10. .3 in too inductance it. The wattmeter reading may he expressed inathema c cosine 62. In this case, 6:; is the angle oi ding of the voitir er i9, and l the rear. he ammeter ill thermore, when the test leads and T2 are connected to terminals '0 an respectively, the wattmeter w.-. read the po.. loss or the inductance iii, the later being expressed iEBa cosine 92. In this latter case 63 is the angle between the or" voltmeter it, and I, the reading J meter ll.

Although special and compliat-d n: circuits fr quently employed in networiz analyzers and calculators to facilitate various electrical measurements, the aiorer all" tioned readings obtainable oy ernployhi simple instrument circuit illustrated indicates that the component or" the v0. tween terminals 6 and o phase witl t rent I, must be small to represent pedance which is nearly pure inductance. impedance circuit shown in l in accoi ance with the teachings of the prior art.

Fig. 2 shows an impedance circuit croptl e invention, having an alternating-c generator or voltage supply 2! connected between lines L3 which may be connected to any very suitable replica of a network system. in line L3, an impedance circuit 22 is connected between terminals A and B. An impedance, SllCl'l inductance or reactor of the coniniercia having an excessive resistan e componc. connected in the impedance circuit 22 bet the terminal A and a terminal 3'. circuit containing a variable imperial is connected between the voltage s the terminal L Although the va ance 3! may be resistance inductance, tance or a combination thereof, it v ll he as sinned herein that the variable pure resistance. A small reactor 33 of the variable or sectionalized type may be serially connected in the auxiliary impedance circuit 2 by adjusting a contact arm 34. By moving the contact arm t l, all or a portion of the reactor 33 may be inserted in the auxiliary circuit 24. To simplify the following discussion, it will be assumed that the contact arm 34 is in the position shown so no current flows through the reactor 33.

A transformer 25 having a primary winding 21 and a secondary winding 29, has the primary winding 2'! connected in shunt with the auxiliary circuit 24. The secondary winding 29 is connected in the impedance circuit 22 between terminals B and B in series with the reactor .23.

By employing the auxiliary circuit 24 and the transformer 25 in the manner just described, an auxiliary voltage may be introduced in the impedance circuit 22 between terminals B and B in series with the reactor 23, said auxiliary voltage, when the variable impedance 31 is pure resistance, being substantially 180 out of phase with the current flowing in the impedance cir' cuit 22. Electrical measurements may be taken between terminal B and terminal A in line L3, and a terminal C in line L l. The electrical measurements may be taken by a suitable metering system such, for example, as the system described with reference to Fig. 1.

By selecting the proper resistance in the auxiliary circuit 24 by adjusting the variable impedance iii, an auxiliary voltage is introduced in the impedance circuit 22 in Fig. 2, which equals the voltage drop due to the excessive resistance component in the reactor 2". Because the inipedance simulated between terminals B and A has little or no apparent resistance component, due to the auxiliary voltage introduced between the terminals B and B, the component of the measured voltage drop, which is in phase with the current, as measured between terminals A. B, is therefore either reduced or practically zero, as desired.

The operation of the circuit of ig. 2 may better be understood by considering the equations involved:

Let

N=turn ratio of transformer 25, i. e,, the ratio of the number of turns of the primary winding to the number of turns of the secondary winding 29.

I =the current supplied to network system flowing through impedance circuit 22.

R- resistance of variable impedance 3!.

Epzprimary voltage applied to primary winding 27.

Es=secondary or auxiliary voltage supplied to impedance circuit 22.

Rc1=excessive resistance component of reactor 23.

Before developing the equations, it is to be observed that the secondary winding 28 is so connected with respect to polarities that the secondary voltage Es is 188 out of phase with the current I. This secondary or auxiliary volt age Es has such a relation to the current flowing in the impedance circuit 22 that a negative resistance is efiectively inserted in the circuit.

Since the secondary winding 29 is connected serially in the impedance circuit 22, a current I flows therethrough. The instantaneous current induced in the opposite direction in the primary winding 2i as a result of the current flowing in the secondary winding 29 is I/N, as indicated on the drawing. The secondary current is, of course, I/N only if the exciting current of the transformer 25 is negligible compared to I/N. As is well understood in the art, this condition can easily be achieved by employing an appropriately designed transformer. It is to be observed that the primary winding 27 is in parallel with the auxiliary circuit 24, and the current I is divided,

so that the current I/N flows in the secondary winding 29 and a current (I-I/N) or By solving Equation B or R,

Es N (C) T Nl 'The variable impedance 3 l, which in this case is a variable resistor, is adjusted so that Es equals .lR-m. Therefore, it follows that (D) Rrc= Therefore, in order to introduce a negative resistance or an auxiliary voltage Es 186 out of phase with the current I in the impedance circuit 22, which will equal the voltage drop due to R50, Ra: from Equation D may be substituted for in Equation 0 and the resulting equation is:

When the relationship between R and Ba: is that expressed in Equation E, the apparent or simulated impedance between terminals 5 and A will represent an impedance having no excessive resistance component Rm.

If the variable impedance 3i were a capacitor or a reactor, instead of a resistor, the phase angle of the secondary or auxiliary voltage Es would be changed or shifted with respect to t e current I flowing in the impedance circuit and a negative capacitance or a negative reactance, instead of a negative resistance, would be inserted in the impedance circuit 22.

Assuming that a pure inductance is desired in the impedance circuit 22, proper relations between R and R9; are established in accordance with Equation E, the voltage between terminals B and A will not have a component in phase with the current I and the measured component or" voltage drop in phase with the current will be zero. In other words, the total power read between terminals A and C will be the as the total power read between terminals B and C. There will, of course, be losses between terminal B and the voltage supply 2% but since such losses are not measured, they are not significant.

it is desirable to keep the primary voltage Ep low because it tends to increase the regulation of the voltage source, and since the secondary volttage Es is fixed by the resistance of the reactor 23, N preferably should be close to unity. The lower limit for N is influenced by the fact that the current through the resistor 3% should preferably be large compared with the exciting current of the transformer, and, also compared wit the current drawn by the voltage measuring circuit connected to B, even though this latter current may not, in most cases, be over two milliamperes. lhe closer N is to unity, the smaller the current through the variable impedance 3i will be.

The leakage reactance of the transformer may slightly increase the inductance between the terminals B and A. By adding a suitable inductance by means of the variable reactor 33 in series with the variable impedance Si in the auxiliary circuit 2%, it i possible to adjust the contact arm 25 to compensate for the inductance introduced by the transformer 25 in the impedance circuit 22 between terminals l5; and A.

In Fig. 3, auxiliary circuit ll and an impedance circuit each contains one or more variable or sectionalize-d impedances. The auxiliary circuit ll contains an auxiliary sectionalized or variable impedance or resistor iii with suitable taps and a selector arm 55 associated therewith, and a secondary auxiliary sectionalized or variable edance or resistor 55 with suitable taps and a selector arm associated therewith. Similarly, the impedance ci cuit 1 2 contains a sectional-iced or variable impedance such as a reactor ill with suitable taps and a selector arm cl associated therewith and a second sectionalized or variable impedance such as a reactor M with suitable taps and a selector arm 6i associated therewith. A transformer havin a primary windi '2? a secondary winding 69, is connected so that the primary winding i'J is in shunt with the auxiliary circuit ll and the secondary win ing 49 is serially connected in the impedance circuit #22.

The auxiliary circuit H may be traced from a terminal bb through a compensating resistor 63, the selector arm the auxiliary resistor 5!, the sci ctor Ell, a second auxiliary resistor 53 to a terminal SS which is connected to a suitable voltage supply. The impedance circuit t2 may be traced from terminal hb through the secondary winding it of the transformer and through the selector arm 5'5, the impedance Or reactor 13, the selector arm ti, the second impedance or reactor to terminal which is connected to a representative network stem in miniature.

As a switching means, each of the selector arms 5'2, till and is provided to contact the various taps or contacts on the resistance, inductance or impedance associated therewith. The selector arms 5'25 and ill are so interconnected that the movement of the selector arm ill to increase or decrease the inductance or impedance inserted in the impedance circuit 52 is accompanied by similar movement of the selector arm 55 to correspondingly increase or decrease the resistance inserted in the auxiliary circuit G l.

Similarly, the selector ring 59 and 6! are also interconnected so that a variation of the impedance the impedance circuit 52 by the movement of the selector arm 6i is accompanied by a corresponding movement of the selector arm 59 and a variation. of the resistance in the auxiliary cire it By this arrangement and a suitable relationship between the impedance and resistance values, it is possible to vary the magnitude of the impedance or inductance in the impedance circuit over a wide range of values and to automatically compensate for the excessive resistance component thereof for any value of inductance.

In order to compensate the impedance device so that an adjustment of the impedance in the impedance circuit 52 will be accompanied by a correct adjustment of the auxiliary circuit 3 l an adjustable impedance, such as the small adjustable resistor 33, is connected in the auxiliary circuit El to compensate for excessive lead resistance and other fixed resistance which do not vary when the inductance in the circuit 42 is varied.

With an impedance device, as shown in Fig. 3, employed in a network calculator, numerous impedances may be simulated between terminals bb and cm. The impedance characteristics or the auxiliary circuit ii are inserted in the impedance circuit 62 as a negative impedance. For example if the auxiliary circuit ll contains resistance, a negative resistance is inserted in the impedance circuit d2, or if the auxiliary circuit ll contains reactance or capacitance, a negative reactance or negative capacitance is inserted in the impedance circuit lil. To employ such impedance device in a network analyzer, terminal as is connected to a representative network system in miniature and terminal In?) is connected to a suitable instrument or metering circuit. However, if no impedance compensation is desired, terminal bb" may be connected to the instrument or metering circuit, instead of bb.

The invention has been described with reference to employing an impedance compensator in connection with a network calculator, but the invention is not necessarily limited to such application, and is capable of use in any application where it is desirable to insert a negative impedance between a pair of terminals in an alternating-current system. Although the invention has been described with reference to certain specific embodiments thereof, numerous other modifications are also possible. Therefore, the appended claims have been drafted to cov r not only the specific embodiments herein disclosed, but also all other embodiments falling within the spirit and scope of th invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. An impedance unit comprising a pair of line terminals for connection to a source of voltage and an external circuit, a, transformer having a first winding and a second an impedance element having a substantially desired impedance and an undesired impedance component, an impedance circuit compris ng said second winding and said impedance element connected in series between a pair of impedance terminals, said impedance circuit and said first winding being connected in series between pair or" line terminals, and an auxiliary impedance circuit connected in parallel with said first winding, the magnitude of said auxiliary impedance circuit and the polarity and ratio of said windings being selected to compensate for said undesired impedance component and to effect a predetermined impedance of appreciable magnitude between said impedance terminals.

2. An impedance unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said impedance circ it comprises a variable impedance.

3. An impedance unit comprising pair of line terminals for connection to a source of voltage and an external circuit, a transfer ier having p iary and secondary windings with turn ratios of N to one, respectively, an impedance element having a desire inductive impedance and an excessive resistance component of X ohms, an impedance circuit comprising the secondary winding and said impedance element connected in series between a pair of impedance terminals, said impedance circuit and the primary winding being connected in series between said pair of line terminals, and an auxiliary impedance circuit of substantially ohms connected in parallel with the primary winding to introduce an auxiliary voltage between the impedance terminals to compensate for the excessive resistance component.

4. In a system for providing a desired impedance between a pair of terminals, an impedance element having desired and undesired impedance components, a source of alternating current, a transformer havnlg first and second mutuallycoupled windings, said impedance element and said second Winding being connected in series between said terminals and being connected in series with said source and said first winding, and a compensating circuit connected across said first winding for neutralizing the impedance of said undesired impedance component, said transformer windings being poled to provide across said terminals substantially said desired impedance of predetermined and appreciable magnitude.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 10 1,399,968 Knopp Dec. 13, 1921 1,743,752 Boyajian Jan. 14, 1930 1,756,816 Dolmage Apr. 29, 1930 1,953,773 Richart Apr. 3, 1934 1,994,279 Higgins Mar. 12, 1935 2,276,032 Gibbs Mar. 10, 1942 2,487,942 Phillips Nov. 15, 1949 

